Adjustable beds



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United States Patent US. Cl. -66 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Adjustable hospital type bed in which the mattress supporting platform is divided into one fixed platform for the hips and three hinged or movable platforms for torso, thighs, and legs, all movable platforms being positioned by slaved air motors and the bed, as a whole, being raised, lowered and tilted by two more air motors.

Levers are provided at about the height of the torso of the patient which levers may be moved up and down to control the slaved air motors and the position of the bed and of the slaved motors will be the same degree of height as the positions of the control levers.

This invention relates to hospital beds and has particular relation to a bed in which all the parts of the bed are controlled by individual air motors which motors are actuated by control levers or the like, the position of which levers is the same as the position in extension of the rams of the motors so that the position of the parts of the bed is slaved to the position of the operating levers or other control means.

Adjustable beds have been proposed for hospital and invalid use, but such beds have the disadvantage that they are mechanically operated by means of motors and levers and the like, or by hand manipulation, and consequently are not smooth and soft in operation as required for least disturbance to the patient. Furthermore, they were not readily controllable and an attendant might have to be called in order to actuate the bed and change it.

It is therefore one of the objects of my invention to provide a hydraulic or air-operated bed which may be controlled by the patient himself and which will not change position after a suitable position has been found unless it is changed by the patient himself.

Another object of my invention is to provide a bed of the type referred to in which the support is soft and yieldable.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a bed which not only may be adjusted as to several sections of the bed, but in which the bed as a whole may be raised and lowered as desired.

Another object of my invention is to apply pneumatic supports and controls to a hospital bed.

Other and further features and objects of the invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art upon a consideration of the accompanying drawings and following specifications, wherein is disclosed a single exemplary embodiment of the invention, with the understanding, however, that such changes may be made therein as fall within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In said drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a bed constructed according to one embodiment of my invention as it appears with a mattress, ready for use.

FIG. 32 is a plan view of the structure of the bed, illustrating the relation of the various parts of the steel frame of the bed.

FIG. 3 is a view in section of the bed taken along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2, with the mattress support flat and the bed frame lowered to its lowermost position.

FIG. 4 illustrates the bed with the bed frame in elevated 3,530,514 Patented Sept. 29, 1970 position and the parts of the body support moved to a configuration chosen by the patient, and

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the control system for the bed.

Referring now to the drawings and, for the moment, more particularly to FIGS. 2 to 5, a preferred embodiment of my invention may be considered as having three main frame parts, namely a box-like main frame 10, a two-part frame supporting structure 11, and an adjustable multi-platformed body supporting structure 12.

The body supporting structure is located above the main frame but projects out on both sides beyond the main frame. The main frame 10 is constructed of two horizontally-extending rectangular frames, upper 13 and lower 14, joined at the corners by vertical corner posts 16 and near the center by support uprights 17 and 18, two on a side.

A table-like structure 21 with legs 22 projects upwardly from the upper rectangle 13 of the frame 10, and the sides 23 and 24 of this table project on both sides out beyond the sides of the main frame 10 the full width of the bed. The sides 23 and 24 are joined by ends 25.

The table 21 provides a support for the hips of the patient and the side members 23 and 24 constitute fixed members of hinges 28 and 29.

A member 36, companion to the fixed member 23 and joined to it by the hinge 28, has three thigh supporting frame members 31, 32 and 34 secured to it at right angles to project toward the foot of the bed. The frame members are joined by end members 36 and 42 and thus form the thigh supporting structure or table 30.

The member 34 is longitudinally central of the bed. The hinge 28 is at the upper surface of the adjoining members so the thigh supporting frame tilts upward with regard to the fixed hip support.

Five longitudinally extending members 37, 38, 40, 41 and 43, which may be called leg support members, are joined by cross members 39 and 26, the member 39 being joined by hinge 44 to the cross member 42 of the thigh support table 30. This structure may be called the leg support table 50.

The hinges 44 permit downward inclination of the leg support with relation to the thigh support, and with the hinged relation of the hip support and thigh support, the thigh may be raised or inclined upwardly as desired and the legs may be located as straight extensions of the thighs or inclined downwardly as desired for comfort.

A rectangular torso and head support framework is formed in much the same manner as the thigh support structure, except that the three longitudinal torso members 46, 47 and 48 are longer and project toward the head of the bed. They are joined by a cross member 52 companion to member 24 and a head end member 26. The hinge 29 permits upward movement or raising of the torso and head as desired for comfort.

The leg, thigh, hip and torso support and the mattress 54, which they support, are shown in FIG. 1.

The main frame support 11 is comprised of two approximately U-shaped frameworks of side members 55 and 56 joined by end cross bars 57 and 58. The cross bars 57 project out beyond its respective side members and are cranked upwardly and outwardly at the ends, as shown in FIG. 1, to receive caster wheels 59. The inner ends of the side members are pivotally connected to the inner faces of the lower frame 14 at uprights 17 and 18.

Air motors or jacks 61 and 62 are connected between cross bars 63 of the upper frame 13, and cross bars 58 between the side members 55 and 56, and operation of the jacks independently or together will raise or lower the support frames to raise or lower or tilt the bed toward the foot or head as desired.

Another air motor or jack 66 is pivotally connected to a cross bar 67 of the lower frame and to a lug 68 on the middle bar 34 of the thigh support 30, and filling and emptying the air cylinder raises and lowers the thigh support.

Still another jack 71, pivotally connected between a cross bar 72 on the lower frame and the cross bar 73 of a pair of operating levers 74 of a U-shaped operating frame 76, through rollers 75, raise and lower the lower end of the leg support 50.

The torso control jack, shown at 77, is connected between a cross bar 78 on the lower frame and the middle bar of the torso support and raises and lowers the torso support.

The air cylinders here shown are the type employing telescoping oppositely disposed bell-like chambers with a rubber sack-like member to act as a diaphragm.

The advantage of the pneumatic motors here shown is that relatively low air pressure will actuate them, and thus they are very resilient and the portions of the bed are resiliently or softly supported.

A relatively slight increase of pressure by the movement of a leg or other part of the body may result in movement of that part of the mattress support and cushions the shock of turning or moving. The patient is almost literally floating on air.

Control of the admittance or escape of air from the various air motors is accomplished by valve control arms 88 such as illustrated in FIG. 5. Actuation of these various control valves is secured by push-pull cables as at 89, and the control wires are actuated by handles or levers or control arms at 91.

The motors, which are known to the art, respond to the position of the control arms and thus raising of a control arm to a middle position will raise the diaphragm in the corresponding motor to a middle position where it will stay locked. The motors may be said to be slaved to the control arms and reproduce their positions.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a hospital bed, a box-like main frame, a fixed hip supporting platform mounted on the main frame approximately midway the length of the frame, a torso supporting frame hingedly connected to the fixed platform toward the head of the bed, a thigh supporting frame hingedly connected to the foot side of the fixed platform and a leg supporting frame hingedly connected to the torso supporting frame, motor means to independently tilt the torso support with relation to the fixed hip support, another motor means to independently tilt the thigh support with relation to the foot side of the fixed support, and still another motor for independently tilting the leg support with relation to the thigh support.

2. In a hospital bed as set forth in claim 1 in which pairs of support legs under the foot end head are pivotally engaged to the main frame for raising and lowering the main frame with an independently operated air motor for each pair of legs.

3. A hospital bed as in claim 1 in which slaved air cylinders are employed as the motor means, and controls placed beside the bed with swinging levers which raise and lower in the same degree as the air cylinders are opened and closed.

4. A hospital bed as in claim 1 in which valves are provided for the air cylinders and lever controls which admit only as much air as to bring the air cylinders to an open and closed position corresponding to the position of the lever controls.

5. The hospital bed as set forth in claim 1, said boxlike main frame being horizontal to support a patient in a generally prone position, said last-named motor being operable to adjust said leg support independently of said thigh support to vary the angular relationship between the thigh and the lower leg and feet of said patient and to permit said thigh support and said leg support to be independently varied in their angular relationship to the plane of said box-like main frame.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,003,159 10/1961 Hebert et a1. 568 X 3,174,161 3/1965 Black 5-68 3,174,722 3/1965 Alm 25493 3,191,195 6/1965 Schlackman et al. 5-63 3,336,606 8/1967 Beitzel 563 X CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 5-69 

